In 1923, a 13-year-old Akira Kurosawa walked through the smoldering aftermath of the Great Kanto earthquake while his older brother forced him to look directly at the devastation rather than turn away. This episode traces how that mandate to never look away from darkness shaped one of the most influential filmmakers in history, from his early years as a painter in a left-wing art movement to his entry into the film industry through a cynical essay that caught the eye of director Kajiro Yamamoto.

We follow Kurosawa through wartime Japanese censors who found his style too Western, American occupation censors who banned the same story as too feudal, the volcanic partnership with Toshiro Mifune that began with Drunken Angel, and the surprise Venice win for Rashomon that opened Western eyes to Japanese cinema. The conversation also covers the co ...